Healing naturally

For my back ailments I was advised to go for 10 days to the Institute of Naturopathy and Yogic Science, a charitable hospital seven km from Bangalore established by the S. Jindal Trust. During the stay of 20 days blood pressure, diabetes, back pain and several other diseases are treated at the Institute and brought under control.

Once you enter the portals of the Institute you are in a different world, a well-disciplined world spread over 80 acres. Placards stuck all over the campus remind: "Naturopathy heals while yoga maintains.” "Eat your liquids and drink your solids.” You feel you are on a college campus. You are in a world free of toxins, pesticides, alcohol, tea, coffee, cigarettes, Pan Parag and even medicine.

Food provided at the institution is vegetarian and without rice and cooked without oil. The beauty of it is you do not miss even once your habituated oily masala food. Bread biscuits given are of whole wheat. Sometimes you are kept on a strict fruit diet and sometimes you are kept on a no-food diet. Juices are provided five times a day of karéla, kokum, tulsi, pudina, carrot, ashgourd and many other health foods. Lunch at 11 a.m., dinner at 6 p.m. and no inbetween snacks of khara biscuits, mava cakes or crunchy broon maska. Practically all vegetables required for the kitchen are grown on the farm where no pesticide or fertilizers are used.

The day begins at 5.30 a.m. when you are gently awakened by the soft lilting lines of bhajans. After doing your ablutions you can go for a 2 km walk along a track which skirts a lake and winds through coconut groves and paddy fields and by 6.45 a.m. you end up at the Time Square for a laughing session where you make new friends and then on to your first glass of juice and your whole day starts.

On the first day of the yoga session at 8 a.m. in the morning I realized I had not missed my third cup of tea, and also that I got up from a sound sleep without having taken my two regular pegs of raw whisky.

Discipline is paramount. Once in, you cannot leave the campus till the last day of your stay and you have to follow all the restrictions. Once a minister patient smuggled in a tandoori chicken and was caught and expelled immediately. Even when you go out on city excursions once a week you are supervised like school children. You cannot have even a swig of the tempting panipuri you see at the roadside stalls. You have to be punctual to the dot at all your classes or you miss them.

There are two well equipped gymnasiums, an acupuncture center, a physiotherapy center and a naturopathy center. There are mud baths, jet massages, neutral cold immersions and many more. At the utility center, tailoring, laundry and beauty treatment are offered. At the recreation hall you can indulge in aerobics, badminton, table tennis and other modern games. There is also a pool table and a cyber cafe. After a dinner at 6 p.m., you attend a lecture at the Yoga Hall for one hour on various topics. Sometimes in the evening there is a cultural show where patients can dance, sing or just crack jokes or indulge in a fashion parade.

The staff is very polite and helpful. They do not expect and accept any tips. The teachers are very cooperative. They discuss with you your problems till you are exhausted and all training is given in a soft, slow tone and always with a smile. Accommodation is comfortable, rooms are well lit, and with cross ventilation, rates varying from Rs 100 for a single room to Rs 1,400 for a cottage per day, including food and yoga sessions. There is also free accommodation for those who cannot afford it but food and services are the same for all. To get admitted you should be under 150 kg and aged under 78 years.

Those interested in more information can contact: Institute of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences, Jindal Nagar, Tumkur Road, Bangalore 560073, tel: 080-23717777.

Z. M. ZEND